Motion #20
GE Candidate Selection Motion
The party’s focus needs to be on gaining more power in our national legislature and this general election is the most important ever for the Green Party. Conference has previously passed a political strategy that requires us to win targeted campaigns in General, London Assembly, Senedd and local government elections.
As a party we are always open to nationally agreed deals between parties. However, in the absence of such a deal, we need to reinforce our voters’ loyalty to the party and prevent our willingness to cooperate being used against us by other Parties. A national election requires a national strategy, agreed by conference.
For the next general election, conference resolves that this should include:
To achieve this, conference resolves to add to point 6 of Clause 5(xvii) in the Green Party’s constitutional by-laws (Selection of Candidates for the House of Commons):
6. Exceptionally, in the event of a Parliamentary election being called at short notice and the procedure being declared operative by the Regional Council Co-chairs, where no Prospective Parliamentary Candidate (PPC) is in place, the relevant Local Party/ies may adopt a candidate by vote at a meeting called for that purpose, of which all Green Party members of those local parties have been notified in advance in writing. In the event of no initiation of a candidate selection process earlier than 28 calendar days ahead of the likely date that Parliament is dissolved, the Green Party Executive (GPEx) or its General Election Steering Group reserves the right to initiate this selection process in the absence of a local party doing so, and subsequently nominate the selected candidate at the General Election.
In 4th bullet point of introduction amend
‘28 days ahead of the likely date of the dissolution of Parliament’
with
‘90 days ahead of the fifth anniversary of the first meeting of the current Parliament.”
In the part of the motion which changes the constitution:
Delete from “Conference resolves to add to point 6”.
Insert:
Conference resolves to replace point 6 of Clause 5(xvii) in the Green Party’s constitutional by-laws (Selection of Candidates for the House of Commons) with the following:
6. Where the dissolution of Parliament is imminent, the Regional Council Co-chairs may authorise the use of an exceptional selection procedure to be used where no Prospective Parliamentary Candidates are in place. The exceptional selection procedure will allow the selection of a candidate by vote at a meeting called for that purpose, of which all Green Party members resident in the constituency have been notified in advance. Where a selection procedure has already been initiated under Clause 4 above, but not completed, this exceptional selection procedure can be used to complete the selection process. An exceptional selection meeting may be called by any local party within the constituency. The Green Party Executive may exercise this exceptional selection procedure and call an exceptional selection meeting where no candidate has been selected and either of the following conditions are met: the Prime Minister has announced a snap general election; or there are fewer than 90 days until the fifth anniversary of the first meeting of the current Parliament.
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